Jenny held her hands out, ceding the floor. ‘How do we do that?’

Hannah strode to the whiteboard and stared at the names there. She took the lid off a marker pen, the smell reminding her of tutorials. She wrote ‘Melanie Cheng’ on a blank area of board then drew lines from Mel’s name and added: ‘Boyfriend Xander’, ‘Family’, ‘Classmates’, ‘Uni Staff’.

‘What would a detective do?’ she said, looking at Jenny.

Her mum shrugged.

Hannah tapped the pen against her hand. ‘Start with the boyfriend.’

‘What about the other categories?’ Jenny said.

Hannah looked at the board and shook her head. ‘I can’t think of anything.’

‘Family stuff? Cultural problems for a young, independent Chinese-Scottish woman?’41

Hannah pressed her lips together. ‘That’s racist. Yu and Bolin are liberal academics, very open-minded.’

‘She has a brother, right?’

‘He’s cool.’

‘You sure?’

Hannah couldn’t imagine Vic doing anything to harm Mel.

‘What about extra-curricular stuff?’ Jenny said. ‘Societies, weird kinks?’

Hannah drew another line from Mel’s name and wrote ‘Quantum Club’.

‘Is that a Dungeons and Dragons thing?’ Jenny said.

Hannah gave her mum a look. ‘It’s a debating club, kind of philosophy. We both go.’

‘I never heard you mention it.’

‘You never asked.’

‘What do you talk about?’

‘Anything, really. The implications of modern physics on life, the universe and everything.’ Hannah knew her mum wouldn’t get the Hitchhiker’s Guide reference. ‘It’s run by one of the post-grad tutors, Bradley Barker.’

Hannah added his name to the board. She could see the shadow of previous scribbles by Grandpa underneath what she’d written, and thought about the molecules of whiteboard and marker ink intermingling, blending this case with every older one, both solved and unsolved.

‘OK,’ Jenny said. ‘So one of us should speak to Xander and the other talks to this Bradley.’

‘There’s no one downstairs,’ Dorothy said, making Hannah turn. Her gran was in the doorway holding a folded piece of paper in her fist. She looked at the whiteboard then at Hannah and Jenny. ‘What are you up to?’

Hannah looked at Jenny then back at her gran.

‘We’re on a case,’ she said.

42

9

DOROTHY

Archie tapped the carotid artery like a nurse and Dorothy watched as the pump did its work, pushing embalming solution into the woman’s body, which forced out the blood. The buzz of the pump and the chemical smell reminded her of Jim. But everything reminded her of Jim, maybe she should sell up and move back to Pismo Beach after fifty years, never be haunted again.

‘Hi, Archie,’ she said from the doorway.

He looked up. ‘Hello.’